Defiance
by EbonyShroud
Summary: All it takes is one question to shake the foundation of a person's belief. However, all questions end with a price that must be paid and some prices are much too terrible for the answer that had been given.


**This is based on the Original Sims, back when it was possible for Santa to visit and leave a present. This is based on an incident that had occurred during my first attempt to get Santa.**

* * *

It was another perfect day, even though no one has ever heard of a day that wasn't perfect. The sun was shining, the temperature was mild, and no one had stolen the lawn gnome as of yet. Bill was content as he sat on a lawn chair in front of his modest one-story house, watching the lawn-gnome situated in the center of his blossoming garden. That lawn gnome had a tendency to wander off the lot, often being found on a neighbor's lawn. He was tired of having to spend the day searching the neighborhood for the gnome only to bring it home and have it go missing a couple days later. He planned to sit outside all day, all night if he must. He will catch the thief and teach whoever it was a lesson about respect and how it is bad to steal.

"Honey, it happened again!" Bill heard a call from the front door. He turned to see his wife, Maggie, staring nervously at him by the front door. Her normally pink cheeks had lost their color and her chin trembled, she looked ready to start crying at a moment's notice.

"What happened, Maggie?" He asked as he got up from the lawn chair, looking away from the lawn gnome to stare at his wife.

"Just come in and see," She replied, walking back into the house. Bill glanced back at the lawn gnome and noticed it had managed to vanish once again from his garden. He wildly looked around and thought he saw an elderly man dressed in a brown suit vanish from sight.

"Damn, this better be good!" He cursed, furious that the lawn gnome had been stolen once again. He stormed to the front door and yanked it open, prepared to yell at his wife for distracting him. However, two excited voices stalled his rant.

"Look, Dad! It's a tree!" His two children, a pair of identical twin girls with dark brown hair and wide smiles, cried out in joy as they stood in front of the huge conifer tree suddenly located in the corner of his living room. The tree was decorated with lights and ornaments; brightly colored presents hid the base stabilizing the tree.

"When did it arrive?" Bill said as he looked around the room. In addition to the tree, a large fireplace was now located where their couch used to be, the couch had been moved nearer to the front door, and a brand-new corner-table with a plate of delicious-smelling cookies was located just beside the couch.

"Just a few minutes ago, while I was studying Cleaning," Maggie replied, wringing the faded apron attached around her waist in her nervousness.

"It must be the Great One's will!" Bill said as he walked over to the tree, gently touching the branches of the tree. He felt the needles for a moment before letting go of the branch and stepping away. The twins giggled as they began dancing around the tree.

"Well, I don't care about the 'Great One!' Whoever it is, he or she should stop this madness!" Maggie retorted, turning away to stare at the fireplace.

"The Great One is our light, guiding us to a prosperous life…" Bill started.

"Yeah, keep spouting that crap and ignoring the obvious. Don't you remember what happened to the Robins?" Maggie retorted, her face turning beet-red with anger. Bill stopped and thought about it. The Robins had been a family of three that became a family of zero when all of the residents died under mysterious circumstances.

"Yes, they died of…" Bill started.

"Drowning, they died from drowning when they dove into their pool and watched the ladders, the only way for them to leave the pool, disappear before their eyes. They could not get out of the pool; the 'Great One' had taken away their lives! What kind of god would be so cruel?" Maggie yelled, glancing angrily towards the ceiling as if to someone would appear above to respond to her accusasion before staring at her husband. The two girls stopped dancing around the tree and stared nervously up at their parents, waiting for something to happen or explode. After a few seconds of silence and heated stares, the two girls left the room and walked outside for a game of tag.

"Now look, we shouldn't argue when the children are listening," Bill started. Maggie clenched her fingers and stared at the floor for a moment before she looked back up at him.

"Why not? Damn it, Bill, they need to know about what happened to the Robins. The Great One killed them, why can't you understand that?" Maggie shouted.

"They must have done something wrong, then. Maggie, do not condone the Great One without knowing the whole circumstance!" Bill shouted back. This seemed to rattle Maggie, who could not find an answer to him.

"If you want to devote your life to this god, like the rest of this stupid world, then fine! I won't stop you!" She stated before walking past him. He turned to watch his wife walk out of the house, making a beeline to the pink flamingo sitting in the garden. He watched her start kicking the flamingo and decided that he had witnessed enough of her rant. He looked back at the tree and smiled, knowing that the Great One would never do anything wrong.

* * *

Several hours later, his wife came in and prepared dinner. After they ate their dinner, which was a meager bland salad, Maggie once again left the house for another round of 'Kick the Flamingo' and left Bill to watch television with the twins. The twins sat on either side of him, laughing in unison with the canned laughter as they watched the program. Bill, however, wondered how Maggie was doing. She had never been so defiant of the Great One before, why did she suddenly become so upset?

"The phone is ringing!" They said in unison, pointing towards the ringing from the kitchen without glancing away from the television. After a deep sigh, he got up from his seat on the couch and walked into the kitchen. He glared at the phone as he picked it up, annoyed that it interrupted the show.

"Hello?" He asked, hoping it wasn't another salesman attempting to con them out of their money again. There was one time when Maggie followed the advice of a prank call and bought anything related to the fall season in order to adjust to her psychological needs. It took two weeks until she realized that it had been a salesman that was calling under the guise of a fortune-teller.

"Hey, lover-boy. I've got a toy to try out with you. Is the wife in the house?" He heard and smiled slightly to himself. It was Belinda, a female coworker that he had met several months ago. It was only recently that their relationship had begun heating up, despite his loyalty to Maggie. The passion escalated quickly and soon he was caught in an affair between two women.

"Yes," He said curtly, glancing towards the living room to make sure no one was listening to him. He did not wish for this affair to ever reach his wife's ears, not after such a long marriage.

"No work today? Damn, I thought she'd be out of the house. I've missed you so much and my bed's been awfully cold," Belinda purred, her low voice thrumming with both impatience and lust.

"She got promoted, so her hours have changed again," He explained.

"Okay, so new schedule to work out. Next time she is at work, call me. Okay? Gotta go, the baby's screaming again," She replied before she hung up.

"Who was on the phone?" He heard behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Maggie in the doorway, looking ready to cry one again.

"One of my coworkers, apparently there is a rumor going around about the possibility of a promotion," He lied. She stared cooly at him before she glanced down at the wood floor and nodded slowly.

"Maggie, I'm..." Bill started.

"I'm going to sleep on the couch tonight, Bill," She interrupted. Several statements jumped out, begging to be spoken out loud. However, his voice seemed unwilling to speak them. He closed his mouth and waited for a moment to see if she would say anything else. After waiting in silence, he decided on the only safe answer he could think of.

"Okay," He replied, unsure of what else to say to his wife. She waited at the door, as if she was hoping for him to say something else, and then retreated to the living room to tell the children to go to bed.

* * *

The next day, Bill woke up to the sound of gleeful cheers. He groaned and sat up on the couch, rubbing his eyes before glancing at the alarm clock beside the bed. He cursed angrily as he noticed that it was six in the morning and stormed out of the room, prepared to scold the children for waking him up.

"Look! A present was left last night!" One girl said as he walked into the room. He stared at her, and then focused on the scene. Maggie was still asleep; likely she had put in earplugs to tune out the children. Then, he noticed that his other daughter was lighting something and realized to his horror that the 'present' she was playing with was a firework launcher.

"No!" He shouted. The girl turned, but it had been too late. The firework blasted from the launch pad and spun upwards, crashing into the ceiling and falling back to the wooden floor below.

"Nicole! Heather!" He shouted, grabbing at his children. Noticing the fear in his voice, they ran towards him with their arms wide open. The firework landed on the carpet and burst into flames.

"Daddy!" They screamed, clinging to him in terror. He pulled the children out of the house, depositing them on the sidewalk.

"Stay here, I'm going back in!" He shouted before running back to the house. He burst in and rushed towards Maggie. She was still asleep on the couch, unable to hear the fire raging nearby. He nearly made it to her when the fire reached the rug that had mysteriously appeared by the couch. It burst into flames, enveloping the couch and Maggie.

"Maggie!" He shouted as he was forced back by the heat. In a panic, he ran for the phone. To his horror, it rang just before he picked up.

"Hi, is Bill there? This is his coworker…" Belinda's voice started. He quickly hung up on her and dialed the fire station. Within minutes, he called the fire department and alerted them. He looked back towards the living room, seeing a dark figure pass through the inferno.

"No! Not Maggie, don't take Maggie!" He shouted. However, his feet directed him out the backdoor and back to the sidewalk, where he stayed until the fire department arrived and put out the blaze. Several onlookers gathered around the family and police officers who arrived on the scene, asking questions before being driven away by an annoyed policewoman.

"Sir, it is safe to enter the house again. Remember next time not to set fireworks off inside teh house," One of the firefighters said as they trooped back to the fire truck. He watched the truck pull away from the curb it had drove over and head back to the station to await another frantic call for help.

"Where's mommy?" Nicole asked, glancing between the quiet house and Bill with wide frightened eyes.

"Stay out here," He said dully. The twins nodded and sat on the sidewalk, wondering what to do as their father walked into the house. He opened the charred door and entered the house, staring at the living room in horror. Piles of ash had replaced his belongings: the tree, the couch, the rug, and the television. He walked towards the remnants of the couch, noticing the urn now located beside it and withheld a sob. It was the Grim Reaper he had seen in the living room, it had taken away his wife.

"Dad?" A timid voice said and he turned to see his children standing at the door.

"Mom's gone on to a better place," He said. the girls stared at him before leaping towards him, burying themselves in his arms as they cried. He glanced upwards, wondering what had happened to cause this tragedy.

"Bill, what happened?" A new voice interrupted their crying and he glared to the intruder. A hot rush of regret burned in Bill's heart as he recognized the intruder. Belinda was at the door, the woman he had been sleeping with. Her light blue eyes glanced around the remains of the room, taking in the damage without a look of disgust on her face.

"Get out," He growled. Belinda snapped out of her scan of the room and stared at him in astonishment.

"What's wrong?" Belinda asked before she noticed the urn behind him. Her worried expression melted to a gleeful one.

"The Great One has granted my wish! We can be together now!" She said excitedly, clapping her hands like an excited child when they get a new toy.

"Get out!" He shouted. Belinda squeaked in fright before fleeing, running back to her car without a single glance back at the house. He held his children tighter to him, now wondering if his wife was correct. Was the Great One truly a gracious god, or simply enjoyed playing with their lives? He thought about it and decided not to speak of his question, so that he would not risk abandoning his children. After all, the Great One is all seeing and all hearing. He could very well end up like his wife, killed off because he decided to question his god.

"Dad?" Heather asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"What's going on? I'm scared," She asked.

"There was an accident. Do not worry, I will make sure this never happens again," He said determinedly, although he knew he could not keep that promise. That all rested in the Great One that watched them.


End file.
